Americans Elect is a joke

[Proud Liberal Dem]

as are all retiring (or retired) politicians and beltway pundits preaching the same real but seriously misguided lament about about the worse-than-usual hyper-partisanship and gridlock currently running rampant in Washington DC. If they were really genuine in their beliefs, IMHO they should really be rallying around President Barack Obama because (smears from certain Fox News "Democratic" pollsters aside notwithstanding), no politician in modern history has done more to attempt, sometimes painfully, to "walk the walk" in terms of genuinely seeking a bipartisan working relationship with politicians of all stripes than Barack Obama since he was elected in 2008, something that he has actually been preaching himself from a national stage since 2004 and that served as the essence of his campaign in 2008.

What organizations and people like Americans Elect obscure and/or fail to recognize and point out is that the hyper-partisanship and gridlock that we have seen and experienced since 2008 has been the results of tactics engaged almost exclusively by members on the Republican side of the aisle, as well as the Tea Party machine that has largely been financed by wealthy right-wing corporate interests with a vested interest in stopping any kind of progressive reform in this country dead in its tracks. President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have, at virtually every turn, bent over backwards- in the name of accomplishing significant reforms on health care, the financial industry, immigration, and climate change- to attempt to win over Republicans, some of whom spearheaded similar reform efforts in the past but time and time again have gotten their hands bit off (actually, more like torn off) by them either because of the Republican members' own craven hypocrisy, their sick desire to see President Obama to "fail", or their plain simple fear of being devoured whole by the Republican Tea Party machine in the next election. Even so-called "moderate" Republicans like Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Richard Lugar (R-IN), all of whom have shown themselves to be sensible and open-minded in the past, have, in nearly every occasion since 2009, closed ranks with their leadership to obstruct President Obama's agenda and refused to cooperate in any way, shape, or form with him and/or the Democrats in Congress. Of note has been retiring Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), whom some have even suggested would be a potentially good for an American Elects pairing despite the fact that she is actually emblematic of the dysfunction that has plagued Washington DC since 2009 and definitely NOT the solution.

With this in mind, what exactly does Americans Elect hope to achieve by putting together a Democratic-Republican ticket that we the people would be unable to achieve in the current political system? To anybody on the right, the concept of a Republican even considering cooperating with a Democrat has been reviled so much by their radical right propagandists and activists, it's practically considered heresy and/or treason. They simply wouldn't trust any Republican actually running in a combined national ticket for the WH. Also, since the Republican Tea Party machine doesn't believe in any kind of progressive reform, anybody elected via Americans Elect is going to have the face the same obstructionist mentality that President Obama has had to deal with since he was elected POTUS and will likely have just as much luck in actually getting substantial legislation through the buzz saw Congress has become. In short, Americans Elect might sound like an interesting and, in some ways enticing, concept on some level but the problems they seek to solve by working to elect a bipartisan ticket could be more readily solved by simply recognizing and supporting politicians and candidates whom genuinely believe in working together to govern the country and improve the lives of its citizens and against those whom do not.

IMHO the fact that Americans Elect and its supporters seem to ignore President Obama's effort to govern in a (much) more bipartisan fashion than modern Presidents (esp. George W. Bush) while continuing to pitch the same "both sides" false equivalency meme suggests to me that they are either not as aware of the current political reality as they like to pretend to be, are hopelessly brainwashed by the beltway punditocracy, or are simply pushing their own enigmatic agenda. I also have to ask, where were they during the previous 8 years when George W. Bush, flush from "victory" in a highly questionable election, decided to be a "divider not a uniter" in every way, shape, and form and practically made Republican hegemony the law of the land. Like with the Tea Party, they may have had a legitimate point about something or other a few years ago but the fact is they're late and they're blaming the wrong people for problems that extend far beyond the current situation in Washington DC.

[FSogol]

1. True dat! K&R

Love this part:

"I also have to ask, where were they during the previous 8 years when George W. Bush, flush from "victory" in a highly questionable election, decided to be a "divider not a uniter" in every way, shape, and form and practically made Republican hegemony the law of the land. Like with the Tea Party, they may have had a legitimate point about something or other a few years ago but the fact is they're late and they're blaming the wrong people for the problems that extend far beyond the current situation in Washington DC."

[eridani]

2. For me, the worst part of it is--

--that they are whoring for online voting.

[ErikJ]

3. Probably another Koch brothers front group

trying to cover all the bases if their extreme rightwing T-Party fails.

[Jim Lane]

4. But an Americans Elect candidate to the right of Obama would probably help Obama.

Suppose the ticket were Michael Bloomberg and Evan Bayh, or Olympia Snowe and David Boren. If the Republicans nominate Romney, wouldn't the Americans Elect ticket take more votes from him than from Obama?

I don't know if the Koch brothers specifically are helping to fund this, but what I've heard does suggest that most of the money is coming from the right. That leaves me wondering what the real agenda of this organization is.

Here's what I see as the best scenario for us: Regardless of the intentions (and machinations) of the founders and funders, the "online primary" is sufficiently open that the participants can wrest control from the hierarchy and nominate their preferred candidate. Their preferred candidate turns out to be Ron Paul, because his enthusiastic supporters flock to Americans Elect when his Republican campaign peters out. Paul, enticed by the prospect of easy ballot access everywhere (or with only a few exceptions), therefore decides to run in the general election, as he's done once already. With a 50-state Ron Paul candidacy in November, Obama wins more electoral votes than he did in 2008, even if the economy takes a bad turn.

I suspect that the powers that be at Americans Elect will prevent this from happening. That still leaves me wondering what their actual plan is, though.

If they really wanted to screw Obama they'd arrange to nominate someone like Rocky Anderson, hoping that he could be the Ralph Nader of 2012. I don't see how they could pull that off, though, given all their hot air about centrism.